A NATIONAL campaign to protect vulnerable park home owners from harsh winters was launched in Wolverley on Thursday, September 11.

Campaigners claim elderly people who live permanently in the bungalow-style properties - prefabricated, mobile buildings usually sited on private estates – suffer more from the cold and face higher energy bills than those who live in regular houses.

The Dedicated Insulation Funding for Park Home Owners movement wants the government to specifically allocate money for the installation of external wall insulation in these homes, after many residents missed out on the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund (GDHIF).

In July the government grant scheme closed and, according to campaigners, the “complexity” and “slow processing” of applications from park home owners meant only a small number benefitted from the money.

Adrian Gill, who is leading the campaign, said: “The government should now dedicate insulation funding for this sector.

“The funding compliance for park homes should be better understood by the authorities, allowing for a more streamlined process.

“There are an estimated 200,000 park homes across the UK and their residents are considered to be vulnerable.

“This sector requires its own allocated resources to improve the thermal efficiency of park homes and reduce the ever increasing bills.

“From our experience hundreds of elderly and vulnerable park home owners suffer from the cold weather unnecessarily and are subject to high energy bills.

“We are determined to make a difference to this sector UK-wide.”

The campaign was launched at Kinverdale Park, an estate of park homes which successfully secured £122,000 of GDHIF funding but only 20 of the 60 buildings were actually worked on.

Dignitaries including Sonia McColl OBE, a long-standing campaigner for park home owner rights, were present at the event.

She said: "I know that park home residents, who are often the most vulnerable in society, cannot readily access energy saving grants and the Department of Energy and Climate Change has recognised this problem.

"Therefore I totally welcome this campaign for dedicated funding for park home residents, which is long overdue."